Thousands
of campgrounds stretch across the nation. Some
are at the end of dirt ruts and offer nothing more in the way of
conveniences than a pump handle and a privy with a door that won't
close. Others have live-in hosts, showers, laundry facilities,
electrical hookups, and a complete schedule of organized activities.

Public
campgrounds are managed by federal, state, and local agencies. The
National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management. National Forest
Service, National Wildlife Refuge system, and individual state park
systems all offer many camping opportunities. Counties
and townships also manage campgrounds. Most
public campgrounds are geared toward tent camping, although many
offer a limited number of hookups for recreational vehicles.

National
Park campgrounds are invariably clean and efficiently run.Most
provide amenities such as bathrooms with electrical lighting. Sites
are well patrolled and campers must observe strict quiet hours(usually
between 10:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M.), which
means you wont have to worry about noisy neighbors or disturbing
generator hum. As
a bonus, park rangers lead nature walks and host evening campfire
programs that are geared to both children and adults.

On
the down side, because of concerns about erosion and preserving
vistas for sightseers, camps are often tucked back into the forests,
away from the rivers, lakes, and breathtaking vistas that these parks
are noted for. Campsites are often pie-assigned at the gate and tend
to be small, eroded by fool traffic, and built close together,
although there are many exceptions.

National
Park campsites usually come at a relatively high sticker price, too.

Popularity
is another consideration.During
peak summer months, most national park campgrounds fill up daily. The
smaller campgrounds are usually first, come, first served;some
larger campgrounds offer reserved sites.

Visit
America's National ParksUnited
States National Park Service Site

National
Forest service and Bureau of Land Management campgrounds range from
remote and extremely primitive sites to well-maintained facilities
with live-in campground hosts. Many Forest Service campgrounds strike
a good balance between comfort and rugged outdoor living, offering
well-spaced sites in a pristine setting, while providing basic
amenities such as purified water, picnic tables, and, sometimes,
indoor plumbing. They also tend to be less pricey and less crowded
than national and state park campgrounds.Many
primitive forest and BLM (Bureau of Land Management)
camps are free.

Quite
often, you can find overflow forest campgrounds outside park
borders, built for campers who have arrived too late to secure a park
campsite. Some are no better than parking lots. But the farther you
get from park entrances, the more spacious campgrounds tend to be.
For example, the road that follows the Shoshone River from Cody,
Wyoming, to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park passes
through some of the nation's spectacular scenery, and the Forest
Service campsites along the riverbank are strung out like emeralds
pinned to a silver necklace.There's
one that we go to regularly that we happened upon when The Main
Campsite we intended to stay at was full and they detoured us here.I'm
not going to reveal its location for it's our little get away and
very secludedon
a BIG Fishing (well stocked) Lake,very
wooded with open areas also, unknown to many folks, etc.

Vacationers
pass these half-campgrounds at 70 miles an hour, rushing to grab
spaces 40 miles down the road that will be half as big, twice as
expensive, and much less abundant in scenic charm.

State
Park campgrounds are often among the most posh. A number visited on
the Oregon coast have beautifully situated and well-spaced campsites;
one park had walk-in sites on a bluff overlooking the surf. On the
other hand, the most densely crowded campground was an Oregon
state park, also on the coast, where tenters slept cheek to jowl, in
the manner of Japanese businessmen cocooned in capsule motels in Tokyo.So
it pays to do your homework first.

Municipality,
township, and county campgrounds are sleepers, unmarked on most maps
and unheralded by campground directories. They tend to be small,
inexpensive, and surprisingly private. You can find them in the
Yellow Pages of the telephone book.

Privately
operated campgrounds offer an alternative to those run by public
agencies. Many are no more than glorified rest stops oft the
highways, catering to overnight travelers. Others are strictly RV
parks, where your evening fire, if permitted, will not cast its
reflection upon tent walls, but rather upon the gleaming surfaces of
aluminum siding.

The
popular KOA chain offers examples of campgrounds with a resort
atmosphere, including showers, laundry facilities, putting greens, a
general store, and other amenities that urbanize the experience.

Click
Hereto
locate a KOA Campground in your State

For
those that want to really get back to nature, and go beyond the
somewhat civilized campgrounds of state parks and the like, extreme
primitive camping is the answer.

What
Kind of Experience Are You Looking For?

Choosing
a campground should he based on family priorities. Not
all of us are looking for the same experience.

If
you and your children love to fish, you may be willing to bypass
sites on a picturesque alpine lake that freezes solid in winter for
one on a mosquito-ridden pond that is dimpled with the rings of
rising trout.

Some
first-time campers may feel insecure in a primitive forest
campground accessed by poor roads, and would utter a sigh of relief
if they could trade solitude for the peace of mind found in a
well-regulated facility with a live-in campground host.

Others
aren't looking for any kind of wilderness experience at all. They
desire nothing more than to pull their trailer onto a manicured
lawn, set out a barbecue grill, and split time between the Jet Ski
and the golf course.

Sensibilities
must also be taken into consideration.Most
guys are perfectly content to stay in your basic water-pump and
outhouse campground; some women I've camped with were not as happy
with such Spartan facilities.

Children
who have been brought up in tents seldom complain, regardless of gender. But
if you are new to camping and have a teenager who takes one look at
the pit toilet and shakes her head in disgust, the odds of a first
outing spawning a second will be considerably enhanced if you are
willing to sacrifice a bit of nature for the basic plumbing offered
in another campground down the road.

As
a rule, however, kids are not as critical as adults. It
makes little difference to them if you pitch your tent in the
campground's most spacious site or the one that is most cramped!

Free
Camping Possibilities!

Free
campgrounds have other benefits besides saving you money. They
are usually found in peaceful and scenic settings. Some
are located by lakes or rivers and offer numerous recreational
opportunities, such as boating, fishing, or water-skiing.

Here
are some of the possibilities:

National
Forests: You can legally camp anywhere on
national forest land. Unfortunately much of the forest area is so
dense that official camp sites are often hard to locate. Find any
level spot on the edge of the campground. A map of the National
Forest will show all the places you have to choose from!

Long-Term
Visitor Areas: (LTVAs) The Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) established nine LTVA's in 1983 in the California
desert and along the lower Colorado River where visitors may camp for
the entire winter. If you wish to stay in an LTVA you'll need to buy
a long-term permit for $25 and pick a location in one of the
designated areas. This permit lasts from October 1 to May 31st. You
may move from one LTVA to another without paying additional user
fees. Guests may stay with permit holders during the season at no charge.

City
Parks: Many cities allow over-night (dry)
camping in their parks. Check the local Chamber of Commerce or police
station about free places to spend a night.

As you negotiate the pages of road
atlases, campground directories, and books when searching for campgrounds,it helps to understand a few key
words commonly used to describe the facilities:

Full hookup indicates
that the campground offers electrical hookups for recreational
vehicles (RVs). Tent campers should always check the ratio of tent
sites to RV sites with hookup. A high ratio of RV sites usually
indicates a more urban camping experience, which is not what most
tent campers are looking for.

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